TEAMS
Over the years I have been fortunate to coach teams ranging from U8 all the way up to adult level. It is a challenge to coach such a wide variety of ages but also a wide variety of ability. One of the skills you learn is adaptability, adapting your coaching sessions to the age group but also adapting your coaching sessions to the ability of the groups. Since moving to the United States in 2016, I have coached numerous recreational teams, several competitive youth teams and one adult team. Set out below are some of the teams that I have coached.
Because I believe so much in my vision of what youth development should be and the methodology or the pathway by which such development is best achieved, my ideas and coaching philosophy do not sit easily alongside the more traditional methods of coaching and playing soccer in the United States.
The ideal is that kids play in the street!
But society has changed and so youth coaching in its best form is trying to recreate street soccer in an organized format. As coaches we try to find ways to replicate street soccer within clubs and that’s where FUNiño comes in together with small sided games.
I will not coach in a club where there is no defined vision of youth development and I will not coach in a club where there is no youth development methodology in place, which is common to all the teams across all the age groups.
It is extremely difficult to find such a progressive youth soccer club. Unfortunately, a lot of youth soccer clubs do not have a vision. And even when there is a vision, there is no defined youth development methodology in place. This means that at each age group, individual coaches follow their own ideas, and the children are being exposed not to a well-organized and defined youth development pathway but to a piecemeal and haphazard method, reliant upon luck and individual player ability.
With the following teams, I tried to implement a coaching methodology based upon the ideas of street soccer, FUNiño, possession and positional soccer and I was lucky to have such a great bunch of players who were willing to train hard and take on board new ideas.
CCFC 2005 BOYS
What is interesting about this particular team is that seven of the boys played recreational soccer at U12 level. I would not allow my boys to go to any of the local soccer clubs as I believed they lacked vision, a youth development policy and coaching methodology. These seven boys followed me when I set up a competitive travel team.
Therefore, many of these boys were exposed to my coaching and ideas from an early age and the core of this team played together for approximately three years at competitive youth soccer level. The team was playing at U15 level, but this picture was taken following victory in a U18 tournament even though the team at the time was composed of 2005, 2006 and 2007 boys. This meant that many of the boys were playing against competition at least two years older than them. However, with a focus on possession based soccer and playing the ball around the opposition, these boys were able to outplay older, stronger, and faster opposition.
There are 13 boys in this picture. Unfortunately, as is too often the case, when boys reach the age of 14, they drift away from sports. Four of these boys stopped playing competitive soccer and with only nine remaining players, this team was disbanded but we regrouped, found additional players, and continued to play at U17 level.
CCFC 2004 BOYS
Many of the boys from the younger team moved up a year and played with 2004 boys. From a coaching perspective, it was difficult because I had to start all over again with the basics in terms of our playing methodology and even though the core group of boys who have been with me for three years understood this, the new players had never played this style of soccer and it was extremely difficult first of all to convince them that this was a better way to play and then to teach them how to play this style of soccer.
But we did it. Instead of kicking the ball long, instead of chasing after the ball, these boys learned to play in triangles, keeping possession, working the ball through the thirds, creating overloads with attacking full backs, using third man movements and we managed to have a fantastic year, which culminated in a 1:0 victory over a Barcelona Academy team from Austin.
We lost games also. I recall playing one of the Westlake teams from Austin, completely dominating the game and losing 3:1 because of three defensive errors even though we possessed the ball for 80% of the game. That’s one of the risks you take when you are developing youth soccer players. Wins are sacrificed in the name of development.
I had my eyes opened to the lack of quality in high school soccer with this particular team. From mid-December 2019 onwards, I was no longer coaching the boys. The club soccer season does not take place during the months of December to February because high school soccer takes over and I went to see many of these boys play in their respective high school teams during the winter season.
What I witnessed was the antithesis of what I had been coaching them. There was no possession soccer whatsoever. It was all kick and chase, boot the ball as far down the field as possible and run after it. There were uneducated soccer coaches and sadly uneducated soccer players.
When this group of players came back to me in March 2020, all of the good work that we had achieved in the months of July to December 2019 had disappeared. Their bad habits as a result of exposure to high school soccer were dominant and in the short time we had, the team could not possess the ball. The same Barcelona team that we had out played and out possessed in October 2019, winning 1:0, we played them again in April 2020 and we were played off the park in a demoralizing 6:0 loss.
That was the last game this team played. Sadly, with the continued impact of Covid-19 and the Director of the Club moving to Dallas, the club folded.
Seven of these boys continue to play club competitive soccer. All of these boys bar two are playing for their respective high school soccer teams. The two boys who choose not to play for their high school soccer teams do so because they recognize that the high school soccer is of poor quality, and they are now playing at the highest youth level in Texas with Austin FC and Barcelona Academy teams. In fact, one of them at the age of 15 made his debut at adult level playing for a team in the UPSL league such was his quality.
It was a pleasure to coach these boys and I wish them all the best in the future.
REC TEAM 2021
By contrast to the previous two teams, this was a team that I coached in the Fall season in a local recreational league because my daughter aged 12 was playing on the team.
At the recreational league, the majority of kids are there simply to be exposed to soccer in a fun environment. The players have little talent and generally poor motor skills and movement skills. Additionally, the season is short. You have limited time to make a difference in coaching and getting across your ideas as to how the game is to be played, namely possessing the ball, and passing.
Every session was based on the FUNiño coaching methodology, constantly playing 3v3 on a short field using four goals in an attempt to get the kids to understand that they should control and pass the ball and look for width in order to progress up the field.
Coaching this level is a real challenge because the overwhelming majority of kids do not possess the talent to play soccer, they have no vision and they do not have the ball control skills. They cannot control and pass the ball and therefore all of the games turn into a kick and chase after the ball.
But you have to accept that this is the level, and you have to do your best by adapting the coaching sessions to their level. Even though we lost the majority of our games, there was tangible improvement in the individual skill level of the players and in particular the most improved player developed the ability to control and pass the ball consistently throughout the season.
They were 15 players on this team. One player never showed up. Another player was injured for the entirety of the season. Of the 13 players that remained, I would anticipate that only 4 to 5 players will return and play in the spring season. That’s entirely normal because the kids are simply trying out the sport to see if they enjoy it and sadly because they are unable to control the ball but rather, the ball controls them, they make the decision not to return to the sport.
At this level, a 13-year-old child is approximately six years and more behind in terms of youth soccer development. Barcelona recruits only the most talented players in the Catalan region beginning at seven years old. Not one of the players on the recreational team would have the talent equivalent to a seven year old kid recruited by the Barcelona Academy. That is the reason why I simply say, these kids are six years behind in terms of development. They will never catch up. They will never bridge the gap in terms of youth development. But they are playing for fun.
The same can be said in respect of the competitive soccer teams that I have highlighted above. The vast majority of those players are simply too far behind in terms of youth development. The two boys who are playing with Austin FC Academy and Barcelona Academy are at an advanced youth development stage because they have been exposed to a soccer ball from the youngest age. They have had a ball at their feet since they were toddlers. They have had several balls lie randomly around the house. These boys have had thousands and thousands of touches on a soccer ball without ever being exposed to club soccer or competitive soccer. These boys have broken windows without any recriminations. These boys have made mistakes over and over and over again but in making those mistakes and having thousands of touches, these boys have developed their skills to the highest level. It is of no surprise that these two boys are my sons.
The key is to have very young children (1-6 years old) playing with a ball at their feet and a strong advocate of this approach is Tom Byer, an American soccer coach living in Japan.
Before there can be a team, there must be individuals who have the ability to control and pass a ball.